“Please help!!! My system was creating problems like frequent hanging whenever I tried to open any application like Microsoft Word, Excel, paint, PowerPoint, etc. So, I thought I should copy entire hard drive data to another hard disk and discard the old one. Instead of copying OS, files, etc. and again performing installation everything, I just cloned (ghosted) my system hard drive data on to a new drive using some cloning software. Then I discarded the old hard drive by replacing the ghosted drive on the system. But nothing worked, as I powered on the system it is showing me a blank screen. It is the only backup available and I don’t know how to get back it now. Can anyone please suggest me good option to recover data from ghosted hard drive? Thanks in advance.”
Before knowing about the recovery procedure for restoring data from ghosted hard drives, let us see what ghosted hard drive is:
Clone / Ghost is a copy of identical data from system HDD on another hard drive of equal storage capacity by making use of cloning applications. Ghosted hard drive holds entire system hard drive data from operating system to desktop files and folders in the exact way as that was on the system drive. So, when you replace system hard drive with this ghosted hard drive it works identically same without any functional difference, because all programs, hidden files, folders, partitions, etc, are copied bit-by-bit in the same arrangement even without the need for installation process. There are many applications to clone system drive such as Macrium Reflect Free, XXClone, Runtime’s Shadow Copy, etc. Thus, in cases of system freezing, hanging, system crash, OS crash, etc. instead of imaging a hard drive, ghosting is more convenient to copy the data without any effort.
How data on ghosted hard drive becomes inaccessible?
There are many possible ways in which data on ghosted hard drive becomes unreachable. Some of the common scenarios are listed here:
- Incorrect way of cloning the hard drive may create problems due to which files on ghosted hard drive may not show up
- Abrupt termination of ghosting application or system such as hanging of system, power surge, etc. while performing cloning may also result in inaccessibility of ghosted hard drive
- Sever virus infection to ghosted hard drive will corrupt the drive and makes all its data inaccessible
- Presence of bad sectors, boot sector corruption, damage to file system and root directory structure will also result in unavailability of data saved on ghosted hard drive
Data on ghosted drive may turn inaccessible in various situations. But, there is no need to worry because there is way to recover files from ghosted hard drive with ease. By employing most renowned data recovery tool it is moderately simple to extract data that is lost, inaccessible and erased on cloned hard drive.
Most effective approach to get back ghosted hard drive data:
Most of the industry experts suggest using Yodot Hard Drive Recovery program to attain complete recovery of ghosted hard drive data. This brilliant software has inbuilt powerful algorithms to scan the drive for deleted, missing and unreachable data within few steps. The program is well suited for FAT16, FAT32, ExFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 formatted drives on laptops and desktops that are not working due to system crash, hard drive, format errors and improper reinstallation of OS. The tool also performs data recovery from removable hard drives, USB flash drives, FireWire drives and other external storage media on various Windows OS based computers.
Steps to perform ghosted hard drive data recovery:
- Connect your ghosted hard drive from which data is lost to a Windows system
- Download Yodot Hard Drive Recovery onto that system and complete installation process
- Then run the utility and wait for the main screen
- Here, you will see two options, “Partition Recovery” and “Formatted / Reformatted Recovery”
- Select “Partition Recovery” option and click next
- From the list of given drives, select the drive letter associated with ghosted hard drive
- Now, software scans the drive for lost and erased data in few seconds
- After completion of scanning process, all files will be displayed under a list
- Go through the files using Data view / File Type view options
- Then select required files, target destination location on host computer drive and click save
Necessary tips to avoid data loss:
- Do not make use of unreliable cloning applications to created ghosted hard drive
- Perform complete and correct procedure while ghosting hard drive
- Maintain multiple backups of system hard drive data to overcome data disasters
